Thunderstorms in Vienna fail to dampen optimistic mood at World Economic Forum summit

By Mel Young, President and Chief Executive Officer, The Homeless World Cup, United Kingdom*

Heavy thunderstorms failed to dampen a surprisingly optimistic mood at the World Economic Forum summit on Europe and Central Asia in Vienna. I attended last year's equivalent summit meeting in Brussels and left severely depressed. Not only were some delegates predicting the collapse of the Eurozone but others were talking about doom surrounding the longer term economic prospects in the whole region.

Twelve months on and the mood is completely different. The opening plentary session set the tone with panelists talking up the prospects of increased relationships and understanding between Europe and Central Asia. The mantra seemed to be: innovation is the key – Europe look East; Central Asia look West.

Degates could suddenly see the potential. This mood of optimism was carried through to other sessions. For example, after a rigorous session called "Stress Test For Europe", all the panelists unanimously predicted that there would be no defaults in Europe and that the Euro would survive and grow!

Panelist, Davide Serra of Algebris Investments claimed that the whole crises in Europe could be solved at a stroke. He said that the current debts of Greece, Portugal and Ireland should simply be bought back. He believed it was all about numbers which made simple arithmetic sense combined with logical economics. It made sense to proceed in this way. There would be some initial pain but in the long-term everyone would benefit. He said that only weak political leadership in Europe was stopping this happening. Even if you didn't agree with him, his contribution was an example of the constructive remarks which were commonplace throughout the sessions during the day.

Yesterday, I promised to go to the yummy session "Ecosystems for Social Innovation". It was brilliantly facilitated by Lofti El-Ghandouri who managed to get everyone involved in what was a very inter-active session. We were scribbling on walls, writing on post-it notes and asking searching questions. There was no chance of a snooze after lunch! The conclusions were once again optimistic. Social innovators have a key role to play in a sustainable region.

How this played out as a sector next to government and how it was financed are just two key issues but again the mood was all about "can do" rather than crushing barriers. The thunderstorms over Vienna have passed. Perhaps this is a sign of brighter days ahead. Let's see. It is easy to talk about innovation but it is more challenging to implement it in the right way. But the mood is optimistic and if today's meeting is anything to go by then brighter days certainly lie ahead.

*Mel Young attends the World Economic Forum on Europe and Central Asia in Vienna, Austria 8-9 June 2011 and is guest blogging for the Forum.